⚠️ Content warning: This article discusses brain death, reproductive rights, medical ethics, and the financial and emotional burden on families.


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Introduction

Adriana Smith was declared brain-dead over three months ago. Yet, in a hospital in Georgia, her body remains hooked to a ventilator—sustaining a pregnancy she can no longer consent to. What began as a tragedy has become a constitutional, ethical, and humanitarian crisis. Under Georgia’s abortion laws, Adriana’s body is being used as an incubator, while her family is silenced, emotionally shattered, and possibly held financially responsible for decisions they were never allowed to make.

This case is about more than politics. It’s about bodily autonomy, human dignity, and the staggering toll—emotional and financial—inflicted on families when state ideology overrides medical ethics and consent.


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Medical Ethics: Ignored in Favour of Law?

The American Medical Association (AMA) states that physicians must act in the best interest of their patients, respect human dignity, and avoid harm (AMA, 2024). Adriana Smith is brain-dead—a legal and medical definition of death. According to these standards, she is no longer a patient. Yet her body is being kept alive against what her family believes would have been her wishes.

There is no known advance directive or consent from Adriana to remain on life support in the event of brain death. This violates the fundamental bioethical principle of informed consent. AMA’s Principle I calls for “compassion and respect for human dignity.” Prolonging mechanical functions in a deceased body for the sake of a potential birth undermines both.


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Legal Overreach and Political Ideology

Georgia’s post-Roe law grants personhood to fetuses once cardiac activity is detected—typically around six weeks (Slate, 2025). In Adriana’s case, this law overrides not only medical judgement but her family’s rights. They cannot remove her from life support. They cannot intervene. And they are expected to accept that her body is being used for a cause they neither consented to nor were consulted on.

This is not compassionate care—it is coerced compliance.


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The Emotional Cost to Her Family

Adriana’s loved ones have not been allowed to mourn her. Instead, they must walk hospital corridors while a machine breathes for a daughter, sister, or partner who is already gone. They are watching her body decompose while politicians argue about policy.

Grief has become suspended. The trauma of delayed closure, the helplessness of having no voice in medical decisions, and the psychological strain of being treated as bystanders is profound. Families in similar cases report PTSD, depression, and severe emotional fatigue—amplified by public scrutiny and legal battles.


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The Financial Burden of Forced Medical Intervention

Beyond emotional devastation, the cost of keeping Adriana on life support is staggering. In the United States:

ICU care with mechanical ventilation costs an average of $11,304 per day (J-SCAI, 2023).

The total hospital cost for prolonged ventilation can exceed $173,000 (Kindred Hospitals, 2024).

In Georgia, even in public hospitals, costs range from $814 to $2,556 per day (Becker’s, 2024).


And who pays? In Georgia, there’s no guarantee the state will cover these expenses. The hospital may bill Adriana’s family for a decision they never made.

If the child survives, the costs continue. Raising a child with potential developmental issues due to premature birth can exceed $1.4 to $2.4 million over a lifetime (NHBH, 2024). Therapies, surgeries, medical equipment, and special education are not fully covered by Medicaid or insurance. The emotional labour only intensifies—on top of grief, families face a lifetime of care, often without support.


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What Happens to the Child?

Even if the fetus reaches viability, outcomes are uncertain. Brain development, lung maturity, and organ function could all be compromised. Will the state step in to care for the child? Will the burden—emotional, financial, physical—be passed yet again to the family?

The AMA’s ethical guidance urges physicians to consider quality of life, not just biological survival. Yet in this case, both mother and potential child have been reduced to legal abstractions.


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Conclusion: Human Dignity Should Not Be Political

Adriana Smith’s case is not an anomaly—it’s a signpost. It shows what happens when medical ethics are silenced, when families are stripped of rights, and when women are denied humanity even in death.

She is being kept alive without consent. Her family may be forced to foot the bill. And the child—should they survive—may face lifelong complications without adequate state support.

This is not healthcare. It’s state-enforced trauma.

No one should have to pay to be ignored. No one should be forced to parent a policy.


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Sources:

AMA Code of Medical Ethics. (2024). https://code-medical-ethics.ama-assn.org

Slate. (2025). https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/05/georgia-republicans-adriana-smith-forced-ventilation.html

Rewire News Group. (2025). https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/05/21/adriana-smith-died-3-months-ago-georgia-could-make-smiths-family-pay-to-use-her-as-a-human-incubator/

NPR. (2025). https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5405542/a-brain-dead-womans-pregnancy-raises-questions-about-georgias-abortion-law

Becker’s Hospital Review. (2024). https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospital-expenses-per-inpatient-day-across-50-states-2024/

J-SCAI. (2023). https://www.jscai.org/cms/10.1016/j.jscai.2023.101187

Kindred Hospitals. (2024). https://www.kindredhospitals.com/managed-care/managed-care-insights/how-early-discharge-to-improves-outcomes-and-reduces-cost

NHBH. (2024). https://nhbh.org/in-the-news/post/the-personal-cost-of-caring-for-a-child-with-a-disability

InCharge. (2024). https://www.incharge.org/debt-relief/financial-assistance-special-needs-children